312 STATE BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE. 



of leading ideas aud suggestions on the subject of ''Rotation in Cropping and 

 Manuring." I am impressed with the importance of the tlieme, and hope to 

 be able to impart somewhat of my own interest therein. 



Rotation means a going or turning aronnd, as a wheel. Agriculturally it 

 means that process or system in raising crops and enriching soils iii which the 

 farm is divided into a given number of plats or fields, and each in succession 

 or rotation is subjected to the same process or order of raising crops and apply- 

 ing manures. 



Now, whether such a system of farming is wise, or otherwise ; whether it is 

 based in scientific, i. e., natural principle, or not, one thing is sure, viz. : it is 

 seldom j^racticed. I am safe, I think, in asserting that ninety -nine one-hun- 

 dredths of us Shiawassee farmers are wholly exempt from any of the disasters 

 and liabilities to which this style of farming might expose us. 



But why is not the rotary system of cropping and manuring a natural and sci- 

 entific, and therefore a profitable and wise one? For if it is founded in nature's 

 order it is scientific, and if really scientific it is wise ; and if wise it is profitable, 

 because agricultural wisdom means or ends in agricultural profits. Any of us 

 Shiawassee farmers would indignantly protest against the imputation of farming 

 for aught else but the unmixed profits. 



Is rotary farming natural and scientific? Now, reasoning alone from the 

 analogies of things, we shall be conducted safely and surely to the conclusion 

 that it is. All nature's movements and operations are on the rotary princij^le. 

 The blood in our bodies, from whence comes all physical life, nourishment, and 

 support, moves and performs its indispensable functions on the circulating or 

 rotary plan. The atmosphere that envelopes the earth and supplies so much 

 that is necessary to organic existence and growth is prepared for, and does its 

 grand work on rotary jDrinciples, The waters of the earth, also, are in perpet- 

 ual rotation. Evaporation, condensation, and gravitation are nature's great 

 levers, buckets, and troughs by which she lifts, throws down, and gathers again, 

 in ceaseless rotation, this jrarified and jirepared element of organized life. Or, 

 looking out still farther into the wondrous operations of the creation for the 

 analogies of our subject, we see the earth itself and all its associates in our plan- 

 etary system, both primary aud secondary, rotating away forever on their axes, 

 and giving to their occupants the blessed products of night and of day. Another 

 step outward into creation's depths, and we see all the bodies of our planetary 

 set or system industriously and unceasingly rotating around their solar center, 

 and bringing to each of these worlds the blessed seasons, with all their vast ben- 

 efits and beauties. We take one more venturesome step into the profounds of 

 the infinite deep of creation in search of the last known link of our analogi- 

 cal chain, and we behold even the universe of stellar systems rotating, or appear- 

 ing to rotate, around a common center in vast cycles of sidereal or equinoc- 

 tial precision, bringing to the universe God knows what infinite and untold 

 blessings. 



Rotation, then, is the established order of nature. We cannot err when we 

 say that rotary farming in theory and in practice has a scientific basis ; reason- 

 ing only from the analogy of things, and omitting much of other scientific 

 demonstration, other things being similar and equal, he must be the wisest and 

 best farmer who arranges and carries forward all his farm operations on the 

 principle of rotation in cropping and manuring. 



But we shall be ready to inquire as to the special advantages of such a system 

 of farm operations. The inquiry enters legitimately into this discussion. What 



